Alps

The Alps (/ælps/; Italian: Alpi [ˈalpi]; French: Alpes [alp]; German: Alpen [ˈʔalpm̩]; Slovene: Alpe [ˈáːlpɛ]) are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) across eight Alpine countries: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Slovenia, and Switzerland. The Caucasus Mountains are higher, and the Urals longer, but both lie partly in Asia. The mountains were formed over tens of millions of years as the African and Eurasian tectonic plates collided. Extreme shortening caused by the event resulted in marine sedimentary rocks rising by thrusting and folding into high mountain peaks such as Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn. Mont Blanc spans the French–Italian border, and at 4,810 m (15,781 ft) is the highest mountain in the Alps. The Alpine region area contains about a hundred peaks higher than 4,000 m (13,123 ft), known as the "four-thousanders".

The altitude and size of the range affects the climate in Europe; in the mountains precipitation levels vary greatly and climatic conditions consist of distinct zones. Wildlife such as ibex live in the higher peaks to elevations of 3,400 m (11,155 ft), and plants such as Edelweiss grow in rocky areas in lower elevations as well as in higher elevations. Evidence of human habitation in the Alps goes back to the Paleolithic era.

Alps (film)

Alps (Greek: Άλπεις, translit. Alpeis) is a 2011 Greek drama film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. It stars Aggeliki Papoulia and Ariane Labed, and was co-written by Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou. It premiered in competition at the 68th Venice International Film Festival where it won Osella for Best Screenplay. It also won the Official Competition Prize for New Directions in Cinema at the Sydney Film Festival in 2012.

Production

Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou developed the premise for the film out of the idea of people who allege something which is fabricated, for example via prank calls or by announcing their own deaths. The story took form as they needed a setting which could work well cinematically. Lanthimos considers it the complete opposite of his previous film, Dogtooth, which he says "is the story of a person who tries to escape a fictitious world. Alps is about a person who tries to enter a fabricated world."

The film was produced by the Greek company Chaos(Χάος) Film, which previously had produced Lanthimos' 2005 film Kinetta. The budget included funding from the Greek Film Center. Filming started in October 2010. Some scenes were added on the set and parts of the dialogue were improvised by the actors.

Alps (disambiguation)

The Alps are a major European mountain range.

Alps may also refer to:

Other uses

See also

Siméon Denis Poisson

Siméon Denis Poisson (French: [si.me.ɔ̃ də.ni pwa.sɔ̃]; 21 June 1781 – 25 April 1840), was a French mathematician, geometer, and physicist. He obtained many important results, but within the elite Académie des Sciences he also was the final leading opponent of the wave theory of light and was proven wrong on that matter by Augustin-Jean Fresnel.

Biography

Poisson was born in Pithiviers, Loiret, the son of soldier Siméon Poisson.

In 1798, he entered the École Polytechnique in Paris as first in his year, and immediately began to attract the notice of the professors of the school, who left him free to make his own decisions as to what he would study. In 1800, less than two years after his entry, he published two memoirs, one on Étienne Bézout's method of elimination, the other on the number of integrals of a finite difference equation. The latter was examined by Sylvestre-François Lacroix and Adrien-Marie Legendre, who recommended that it should be published in the Recueil des savants étrangers, an unprecedented honour for a youth of eighteen. This success at once procured entry for Poisson into scientific circles. Joseph Louis Lagrange, whose lectures on the theory of functions he attended at the École Polytechnique, recognized his talent early on, and became his friend (the Mathematics Genealogy Project lists Lagrange as his advisor, but this may be an approximation); while Pierre-Simon Laplace, in whose footsteps Poisson followed, regarded him almost as his son. The rest of his career, till his death in Sceaux near Paris, was nearly occupied by the composition and publication of his many works and in fulfilling the duties of the numerous educational positions to which he was successively appointed.

Poisson (crater)

Poisson is a lunar crater that is located in the southern highlands of the Moon's near side. It lies to the east of the crater Aliacensis and northwest of Gemma Frisius. To the northwest of Poisson is Apianus.

This heavily eroded crater shares a common floor with the satellite crater Poisson T to the west-southwest, and the two craters have more or less merged into a single formation with a narrower neck in between. The rim of Poisson is heavily eroded, and is overlain by several craters. Poisson U is intruding into the southern rim at the junction of Poisson and Poisson T. A low-walled formation is joined to the northern rim at the opposite side of the neck from Poisson U.

The interior floor of Poisson and Poisson T has been resurfaced by basaltic lava, leaving a level surface within the inner walls. A pair of old, worn craters lies along the inner wall in the southeast part of the crater.

Satellite craters

By convention these features are identified on lunar maps by placing the letter on the side of the crater midpoint that is closest to Poisson.

Poisson (disambiguation)

Poisson (meaning fish in French) may refer to: